Gorgoyles (1972)

Gargoyles is a 1972 made for tv movie directed by Bill L.Norton and stars Cornel Wilde and William Stevens.


 A monster suit can make or break a horror film. With the right makeup effects and performer, something special can be done with a creature that’s been seen dozens of times. A mediocre film can even be partially redeemed by good monster effects. But even the best suit can’t overcome shots and lighting that reveal its deficiencies. If the performer bringing the creature to life doesn’t understand how to move and hide the reality of a rubber suit, this can also destroy the illusion. 1972’s made-for-TV film Gargoyles is well known in horror circles, mainly for its effects. It features the first ever makeup effects from the legendary Stan Winston (The Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park). His gargoyle suits not only terrified a generation of viewers, they also won him an Emmy. Nearly 40 years later, how well do these nightmare-inducing monsters hold up?

An effective opening montage catches viewers up on the history of gargoyles (or at least the history made up by the screenwriters). A narrator tells us the story of Satan’s fall from grace and banishment to hell. He talks of Satan’s struggle to take over the world and how his children, the gargoyles, will help turn the tide of battle. Every 500 years, the gargoyles are reborn and launch their attack on humanity. Although they have failed in the past, this time things will be different. This voice over is played over paintings and photographs that establish a spooky mood, not unlike an episode of In Search Of or Unsolved Mysteries. The fact that the narrator is voice by Vic Perrin, the control voice from the original Outer Limits series, definitely helps up the creep factor.

From here we meet our lead characters. Dr. Mercer Boley (Cornel Wilde, director and star of The Naked Prey) is an author who specializes in demonology. He’s researching his latest book on the history of demons while traveling through Arizona. Joining Dr. Boley is his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt, 1973’s Sisters). Boley and Diana’s mother have been divorced for some time, so both father and daughter see this as a good time to reconnect and rejuvenate their relationship. Boley has been in contact with a local about information that could help the doctor with his book. He and Diana head off into the desert to find what is hopefully an exciting new artifact depicting demons.

Things end up a little differently than the Boleys expected when they end up at Uncle Willy’s roadside shack. Willy (Woody Chambliss, Gunsmoke) runs a tourist trap full of old knick-knacks and oddities (in other words, junk) that don’t impress the doctor. Just as Boley and Diana are about to leave, Willy tells them that the real reason he brought them out is to see something in his shack. The family gives him one last chance, and Willy doesn’t disappoint. In his shack are the skeletal remains of a gargoyle. Willy says that the remains were found in a nearby cave and he has a lifetime’s worth of stories about strange goings-on in the area that he wants to collaborate with Dr. Boley on in a new book. Before anyone can sign on the dotted line, gargoyles descend on the shack. In an intense sequence, the shack begins to rumble and large claws tear through the roof. Ceiling beams collapse, trapping Willy and causing an oil lamp to burst into flames. The Boleys manage to make it out of the shack with their lives and the gargoyle skull, but Willy is unable to be saved from the fire. As the two drive back towards town, a winged gargoyle tears apart the roof of their car before being thrown from the vehicle.

Dr. Boley decides to hide what happened from the police, because who would believe a gargoyle attack? As their car is repaired, the Boleys find themselves caught up in small town politics. A group of dirt bike riding hooligans (led by Scott Glenn, The Silence of the Lambs) are blamed for Willy’s death. Her conscience heavy, Diana tries to explain what really happened to the bikers. But no one believes her until the gargoyles descend on the motel room she is sharing with her father. In a series of exciting scenes, Diana is eventually kidnapped by the lead gargoyle (Bernie Casey, U.N. Jefferson from Revenge of the Nerds) and taken back to his lair. In a surprising turn from most genre films, as soon as Dr. Boley informs the authorities of what kidnapped Diana, they load up and join him on the gargoyle hunt. There are no scenes of disbelieving authority. It’s just, “You say your daughter’s been kidnapped by gargoyles? Let’s go get ‘um!”

Instead of building up a slow reveal of the gargoyles, director Bill L. Norton (More American Graffiti) shows them off almost as soon as they appear in the story. This is no doubt tied to the fact that the gargoyles look great. The production got more than they bargained for, so they wanted to show them off. Most impressive is the leader portrayed by Casey. He boasts horns, spiked teeth, long claws, and an impressive wingspan. The other gargoyles don’t leave as big of an impression, but it’s not the fault of the suits. The only thing I found disappointing about these “soldier” gargoyles is that they don’t much resemble gargoyles at all. Wings and horns are missing from all of them, making them appear more like lizard people than devil spawn. Even so, the effects on these lesser creatures are still impressive. Considering that most made-for-TV films are shot in about two weeks with about as much time given to pre-production, it’s no surprise that the suits Winston helped developed here won accolades. What lessens the impact of these other gargoyles is that the performers don’t have the presence that Casey brings to his leader role. Where most would imagine gargoyles perched over cliffs, hidden in darkness, director Norton instead keeps these creatures out in the open and standing tall. The monster in Alien was nothing more than a man in a suit, but Ridley Scott’s direction made it seem like a living, breathing terror unlike anything on earth. The gargoyles here at times resemble nothing more than a man running around in a lizard suit, because that’s how Norton shoots them.

All of the actors involved do a decent job, but none are as lively as Casey in his role as the lead gargoyle. Even when saddled with some awful dialogue, he still manages to bring a commanding presence. As far as the humans go, Cornel Wilde impresses the most. This isn’t surprising considering the actor’s pedigree, but even so, Dr. Boley isn’t given much in the way of depth. Jennifer Salt lets her halter top do all the heavy lifting for her. She’s very easy on the eyes, but doesn’t do much besides wear her wardrobe well. From the supporting players, Woody Chambliss is a hoot as Uncle Willy. It’s a shame his character has so little screen time. The gargoyle hunting posse would’ve been livened up quite a bit if Willy was along for the ride. This is one of Scott Glenn’s earliest roles and he plays the biker with a heart of gold well, but without the authority or intensity he would later be known for.


Gargoyles originally aired on November 21, 1972. Viewers at the time (especially younger ones) were transfixed by the creatures they saw onscreen. Many children of the 70s consider the film not only one of the best telefilms of all time, but also one of the scariest. 40 years later the film still maintains a good energy throughout (there is a scare or action scene around every commercial break) and the makeup is impressive. However, some directorial touches do hamper the film. A chase between the cops and bikers goes on far too long and the slow motion effect used whenever the gargoyles are onscreen is effective at first, but gets tiring when it goes on all throughout extended sequences. The restrictions of the television format can also be felt. If the filmmakers were allotted more than 75 minutes to tell their story, things would have been given more room to breathe. This would’ve no doubt enhanced the characters and finale, which is very abrupt. At the end of the day, the film might not live up to its reputation, but it is still a fine example of a dead art form, the television terror.
Film Reviews, MacGuffin Content, Tomb of Terror




GARGOYLES
BILL L. NORTON  (1972)
TOMORROW ENTERTAINMENT
82 MIN
USA

Lost in Space : Trip Through the Robot (1967)

Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 83 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968 (the unaired pilot "No Place To Hide" and the 1998 reunion "Lost In Space Forever" bring the total number of episodes to 85). Their first TV season was filmed in black and white, but the rest were filmed in color. In 1998, a Lost in Space movie, based on the TV series, was released.


Though the TV series concept centered on the Robinson family, many storylines focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), originally an utterly evil would-be killer who became a sympathetic anti-hero by the end of the first season, providing comic relief to the TV show (and causing most of the episodic conflict).

The first appearance of a space-faring Robinson family (unrelated to the series' Robinsons) was in a comic book published by Gold Key Comics, The Space Family Robinson, December 1962. The TV series is an adaptation of the novel The Swiss Family Robinson.[citation needed] The astronaut family of Dr. John Robinson, accompanied by an Air Force pilot and a robot, set out from an overpopulated Earth in the spaceship Jupiter 2 to visit a planet circling the star Alpha Centauri with hopes of colonizing it. Their mission in 1997 (the official launch date of the Jupiter 2 was October 16, 1997) is immediately sabotaged by Dr. Zachary Smith, who slips aboard their spaceship and reprograms the robot to destroy the ship and crew. Smith is trapped aboard, saving himself by prematurely reviving the crew from suspended animation. They save the ship, but consequent damage leaves them lost in space. Eventually they crash on an alien world, later identified as Priplanis, where they must survive a host of adventures. Smith (whom Allen originally intended to kill off) remains through the series as a source of comedic cowardice and villainy, exploiting the forgiving (or forgetful) nature of the Robinsons. At the start of the second season, the repaired Jupiter 2 launches again, but after two episodes the Robinsons crash on another planet and spend the season there. This replicated the feel of the first season, although by this time the focus of the series was more on humor than straight action/adventure.

In the third season, the Robinson Family wasn't restricted to one world. The now mobile Jupiter-2 would travel to other worlds in an attempt to return to Earth or to settle on their originally desired planet in the Alpha Centauri system. The Space Pod was added as a means of transportation between the ship and planets. This season had a dramatically different opening credits sequence. Following the format of Allen's first TV series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, fantasy-oriented adventure stories were emphasized. The show delivered a visual assault of special effects, explosions, monstrous aliens, spaceships, and exotic sets and costumes drenched in the bright, primary colors that were typical of early color television.

Plot:
On October 16, 1997 (thirty years into the future in 1967), the United States is about to launch of one of history's great adventures: man's colonization of deep space. The Jupiter 2 (called Gemini 12 in the pilot episode), a futuristic saucer-shaped spaceship, stands on its launch pad undergoing final preparations. Its mission is to take a single family on a five-and-a-half-year journey (stated as 98 years in the pilot episode) to a planet of the nearby star Alpha Centauri (the pilot episode refers to the planet itself as Alpha Centauri), which space probes reveal possesses ideal conditions for human life. The Robinson family was selected from among two million volunteers for this mission. The family includes Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart), their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright), and Will (Billy Mumy). They will be accompanied by their pilot, US Space Corps Major Donald West (Mark Goddard), who is trained to fly the ship in the unlikely event that its sophisticated automatic guidance system malfunctions.


Other nations are racing to colonize space and they would stop at nothing, even sabotage, to thwart the US effort. Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), a medical doctor and environmental control expert, is actually a foreign secret agent. He reprograms the Jupiter 2's B-9 environmental control robot (voiced by Dick Tufeld) to destroy critical systems on the spaceship eight hours after launch. Smith is trapped aboard at launch and his extra weight throws the Jupiter 2 off course, causing it to encounter a meteor storm. This plus the robot's rampage causes the ship to become lost. The Robinsons are often placed in danger by Smith, whose self-centered actions and laziness endanger the family. In the second and third seasons, Smith's role assumes a less evil overtone – although he continues to display many character defects. In "The Time Merchant", Smith travels back in time to the day of the Jupiter 2 launch, with hope of changing his fate. He learns that without his weight altering the ship's course, it would be destroyed by an uncharted asteroid. In an act of redemption, Smith elects to re-board the ship, thus saving the Robinsons' lives.
From Wikipedia
Trip Through the Robot : Season 2 : episode 26 : Original broadcasted on March 22 1967:
The robot is running out of power and goes to a strange valley to die and then grows to the size of a city block. Will and Dr Smith enter the robot to try and help him.


LOST IN SPACE: TRIP THROUGH THE ROBOT
DON RICHARDSON  (1967)
20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
55 MIN
USA

Alfred Hitchcock Presents : Lamb to the Slaughter (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades. Time magazine named Alfred Hitchcock Presents one of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME".

HistoryAlfred Hitchcock Presents is well known for its title sequence. The camera fades in on a simple line-drawing caricature of Hitchcock's rotund profile. As the program's theme music, Charles Gounod's "Funeral March for a Marionette", plays, Hitchcock appears in silhouette from the right edge of the screen, and then walks to center screen to eclipse the caricature. He then almost always says "Good evening." (The theme music for the show was suggested by Hitchcock’s long-time musical collaborator, Bernard Herrmann.)

The caricature drawing — composed of just nine strokes — was the work of Hitchcock himself. The sequence has been parodied countless times in films and on television. The caricature and the use of Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" as theme music have become indelibly associated with Hitchcock in popular culture. Hitchcock appears again after the title sequence, and drolly introduces the story from a mostly empty studio or from the set of the current episode; his monologues were written especially for him by James B. Allardice. At least two versions of the opening were shot for every episode. A version intended for the American audience would often spoof a recent popular commercial or poke fun at the sponsor, leading into the commercial. An alternative version for European audiences would instead include jokes at the expense of Americans in general. For later seasons, opening remarks were also filmed with Hitchcock speaking in French and German for the show's international presentations, reflecting his real-life fluency in both languages. Hitchcock closed the show in much the same way as it opened, but mainly to tie up loose ends rather than joke. He told TV Guide that his reassurances that the criminal had been apprehended were "a necessary gesture to morality." Originally 25 minutes per episode, the series was expanded to 50 minutes in 1962 and retitled The Alfred Hitchcock Hour. Hitchcock only directed 17 of the 268 filmed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and only one of the 50 minutes episodes, "I Saw the Whole Thing" with John Forsythe. The last new episode aired on June 26, 1965, and the series continued to be popular in syndication for decades.
From Wikipedia


Lamb to the Slaughter : Season 3 : Episode 28 : Original broadcast April 18 1958
"Lamb to the Slaughter" (1953) is a short story by Roald Dahl. It was initially rejected, along with four other stories, by The New Yorker, but was ultimately published in Harper's Magazine in September 1953. It was adapted for an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and starred Barbara Bel Geddes. Originally broadcast on April 13, 1958, it was one of only 17 AHP episodes directed by Hitchcock himself. The story was subsequently adapted for Dahl's British TV series Tales of the Unexpected. Dahl included it in his short story compilation Someone like You.

"Lamb to the Slaughter" demonstrates Dahl's fascination with horror (with elements of black comedy), a theme that would influence both his adult fiction as well as his children stories
Mary Maloney, a devoted housewife, expects her husband Patrick to return home from his job as a local police detective. When he returns, Mary notices that he is strangely aloof and assumes that he was tired from work. Patrick finally reveals to Mary what is making him act strangely. It is not explicitly said, but it is insinuated that he is leaving her. Seemingly in a trance, Mary fetches a large leg of lamb from the deep-freezer in the cellar to cook for their dinner. Patrick angrily tells Mary not to make him any dinner, as he is going out. She strikes Patrick in the back of the head with the frozen lamb leg, killing him. Mary realizes that she has killed Patrick and has to create a story to tell the detectives. She prepares the leg of lamb that she has killed her husband with and places it in the oven to somewhat destroy the evidence. After practicing a cheerful routine, she visits the grocer to establish an alibi. Upon returning, she enters the room with her dead husband lying on the floor and calls the police. When the police (who are all friends of her husband) arrive, they ask Mary questions and look at the scene. Considering Mary above suspicion the police conclude that Patrick was killed with a large blunt object, likely made of metal. After a fruitless search around the house and surrounding area, Mary is reminded the leg is cooking, and offers it to the policemen, which after hesitating they accept. During the meal they discuss the murder weapon's possible location. One officer says it is "Probably right under our very noses". Mary overhears the last line and giggles, knowing it's true.


ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS : LAMB TO SLAUGHTER
ALFRED HITCHCOCK  (1958)
CBS TELEVISION 
26 MIN
USA

The Night Strangler (1973)

The Night Strangler is a made for television movie which first aired on ABC on January 16, 1973 as a sequel to The Night Stalker.


'The Night Strangler' proved almost as popular as its predecessor garnering strong ratings and eventually prompting ABC to order a TV series (neither writer Richard Matheson nor producer/director Dan Curtis was involved in the TV series). In the United States the TV movie ran (without commercials)approximately 74 minutes. ABC planned to release the film overseas as a theatrical release and had additional footage shot rounding out the movie to 90 minutes In 1973 reporter Carl Kolchak(Darren McGavin), now in Seattle, Washington (having been run out of Las Vegas at the end of the last film) is hired by his old editor, Tony Vincenzo(Simon Oakland) assigned to the story of a series of killings, in which the victims, all exotic dancers, are strangled, their necks crushed, then drained of a few ounces of blood.

Researcher Titus Barry(Wally Cox) discovers that there was a similar rash of killings in 1952, setting Kolchak on the trail of another unbelievable story. Kolchak investigates further murders(with the reluctant support of Vincenzo), but is stonewalled by the police, wanting to have certain details of the murders kept secret. Out of 'burning curiousity' Barry researches further back and he learns of another series of murders in 1931; Kolchak notes that it is twenty-one years from 1973 to 1952 and another twenty-one years from 1952 to 1931; together they look further back to 1910 and discover another series of murders; it turns out that they have been occurring every twenty-one years since 1889. Kolchak discovers that every series of murders took place over a period of eighteen days; after further investigation it seems the killer needs the blood for a kind of elixir of life which keeps him alive for twenty-one years at a time. Of course no one believes Kolchak, and the powers that be want to silence him. Mr. Barry uncovers further clues in an old interview with Mark Twain and a vital clue leading a Dr. Richard Malcolm, a surgeon in the Union Army during the Civil War who was one of the original staff at the Westside Mercy Hospital. Though the hospital is long gone, Kolchak goes to the clinic standing on the site, in the hopes thy might have the hospital's old records, but he finds something far more important just inside the front door: a painting of the clinic's founder, a Dr. Malcolm Richards, who is the spitting image of Richard Malcolm.Kolchak calls Barry to meet him there, and proceeds to alter the painting to make the similarity more obvious; Mr. Barry is amazed, but the police are less than impressed and Kolchak is arrested.Finally, Kolchak and Barry convince the police(and their boss) of he facts: that the killer really is practically immortal, and that he will kill again. But the story is once again suppressed. The killer gain his last victim and Kolchak enters into a race against time to stop the killer before he is able to complete the creation of his elixir and disappear for another twenty-one years.


THE NIGHT STRANGLER
DAN CURTIS  (1973)
ABC TELEVISION
141 MINUTES
USA

Land of the Giants : Target Earth (1969)

Land of the Giants was an hour-long Americanscience fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968 and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was aired on ABC and released by 20th Century Fox Television. The series was filmed entirely in color and ran for 51 episodes. The show starred Gary Conway and Don Marshall. Author Murray Leinster also wrote three novels in 1968 and 1969 based on the television series

Set in the then-future year of 1983, the series tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport spaceship called the Spindrift. In the pilot episode, the Spindrift is en route from Los Angeles to London via the ultra-fast route of a parabolic trajectory. Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the Spindrift encounters a strange space storm and is transported to a mysterious planet where everything is twelve times larger than its counterpart on Earth. The Spindrift crew calls the inhabitants "the giants". Given relative proportions shown on the show, the giants are about 72 feet tall (similar to Gulliver's situation in the second part of "Gulliver's Travels", when he is in the land of Brobdingnag). Everything on their planet is built to their scale — buildings, cars, animals, etc. The Spindrift crashes on this planet and becomes inoperable. These giants are humanoid in form, and though their society resembles in some respects that of 1960s United States of America, their government is totalitarian. However few precise details are given and no governmental symbols are ever seen. The giant government has offered a reward for the capture of the tiny Earth people, presumably because of the Earth's superior technology. Episodes often have the plot of giants capturing one of the passengers or crew with the rest having to rescue him or her. The Earth people avoid capture most of the time because their spaceship is hidden in a forest outside the city. They also occasionally form alliances with individual giants to achieve some commonly beneficial purpose.

TARGET EARTH : episode 20 season 1:
A giant scientist has invented a device that is to be used as a guidance system for their space program. Unfortunately, it is flawed and has failed a critical test. Mark, going against Steve's orders, decides to help fix the problem and in return the scientist promises to help them return to Earth. However, the wife of the scientist is jealous of Mark and feels that any help he gives her husband will help to discredit him and as a result she reports what is going on to Inspector Kobick. Written by Brian Washington



LAND OF THE GIANTS : TARGET EARTH
SOBEY MARTIN  (1969)
20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
56 MIN
USA

Land of the Giants : Genius at Work (1968)

Land of the Giants was an hour-long American science fiction television program lasting two seasons beginning on September 22, 1968 and ending on March 22, 1970. The show was created and produced by Irwin Allen. Land of the Giants was the fourth of Allen's science fiction TV series. The show was aired on ABCand released by 20th Century Fox Television. The series was filmed entirely in color and ran for 51 episodes. The show starred Gary Conwayand Don Marshall

Set in the then-future year of 1983, the series tells the tale of the crew and passengers of a sub-orbital transport spaceship called the Spindrift. In the pilot episode, the Spindrift is en route from Los Angeles to London via the ultra-fast route of a parabolic trajectory. Just beyond Earth's boundary with space, the Spindrift encounters a strange space storm and is transported to a mysterious planet where everything is twelve times larger than its counterpart on Earth. The Spindrift crew calls the inhabitants "the giants". Given relative proportions shown on the show, the giants are about 72 feet tall (similar to Gulliver's situation in the second part of "Gulliver's Travels", when he is in the land of Brobdingnag). Everything on their planet is built to their scale — buildings, cars, animals, etc. The Spindrift crashes on this planet and becomes inoperable. These giants are humanoid in form, and though their society resembles in some respects that of 1960's United States of America, their government is totalitarian. However few precise details are given and no governmental symbols are ever seen. The giant government has offered a reward for the capture of the tiny Earth people, presumably because of the Earth's superior technology. Episodes often have the plot of giants capturing one of the passengers or crew with the rest having to rescue him or her. The Earth people avoid capture most of the time because their spaceship is hidden in a forest outside the city. They also occasionally form alliances with individual giants to achieve some commonly beneficial purpose.

Land of the Giants : Genius at Work : Episode 21 1968

Barry and Fitzhugh befriend a 12-year old scientific genius named Jodar (Jody) who has invented a substance which causes growth. While talking to the boy, Barry's dog Chipper eats some of the formula and grows to gigantic size. After seeing this, Fitzhugh decides to eat some with the idea that he will no longer have to worry about being hunted down. However, he is mistaken for a giant who was accused of nearly killing a boy. Also, Fitz is found with some of the money he stole back on Earth he is taken to SID headquarters for questioning. When Steve finds out, he goes to Jody and takes some of the formula as part of a plan to get Fitzhugh out of jail and to try to find the man who Fitz was mistaken for. Written by Brian Washington Sargebri@att.net

 
LAND OF THE GIANTS : GENIUS AT WORK
SOBEY MARTIN  (1968)

20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION

55 MIN
USA

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea : The Monster from Outer Space (1965)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the television series. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the first of Irwin Allen's four science fiction television series as well as the longest running. The show's main theme was underwater adventure. Voyage was broadcast on ABC from September 14, 1964 to March 31, 1968, and was the decade's longest-running American science fiction television series with continuing characters. The 110 episodes produced included 32 shot in black and white (1964–65), and 78 filmed in color (1965–68). The first two seasons took place in the then future of the 1970s. The final two seasons took place in the 1980s. The show starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison. The first season began with Admiral Nelson and the crew of the Seaview fighting against a foreign government in order to prevent a world-threatening earthquake, continuing with a foreign government destroying American submarines with new technologies in The Fear Makers and The Enemies. The season also had several ocean peril stories in which the Seaview crew spent the episode dealing with the normal perils of the sea. Two examples are "Submarine Sunk Here" and "The Ghost of Moby Dick". The season introduced the diving bell and a mini-submarine, as well as the first alien story and the first sea monsters. The season ended with the Seaview crew fighting a foreign government to save a defense weapon. In the first season, the gritty, atmospheric, and intense series featured story lines devoted to Cold War themes, as well as excursions into near-future speculative fiction. Many episodes involved espionage and sci-fi elements. While aliens and sea monsters, not to mention dinosaurs, did become the subject of episodes, the primary villains were hostile foreign governments. While fantastic, there was a semblance of reality in the scripts.

Episode 45 The Monster from Outer Space  12-19-65:
Seaview is ordered to retrieve an unmanned Saturn probe. Despite the administration of a painstaking decontamination procedure to remove any possible alien organisms from the probe, an alien entity still manages cling to the casing. Soon, the entire crew is taken over -- except for Nelson and Sharkey, who were off-ship when the creature first emerged.

• Once again, Captain Crane is "ordered" to kill Admiral Nelson. He does try awfully hard to avoid it. On the other hand, once Crane gives in to the alien, he does his best to carry out his new orders!

 

VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA : THE MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE
SOBEY MARTIN  (1965)
20 CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
55 MIN
USA

Dragnet : The Big High (1967)

The Big High was an episode of the American television series Dragnet. It aired on the NBC network on November 2, 1967, the program's second season. It starred Jack Webb (who also produced and directed the episode) Harry Morgan, Tim Donnelly, Ed Prentiss, Merry Anders, Brenda Scott, Kent McCord and James Oliver. It is sometimes called "Grass Kills" and is considered comparable to Reefer Madness in terms of exaggerating the marijuana threat.


Plot summaryLos Angeles police officers Joe Friday  and Bill Gannon  are visited one day by one Charles Porter , a wealthy man who's very concerned about the welfare of his only grandchild, Robin Shipley. Porter's concern rises from the fact that his daughter Jean Shipley  and her husband, computer programmer Paul  admit to using marijuana. Friday and Gannon pay a call on the Shipleys at their posh home in the San Fernando Valley. Though Jean refuses a search of the home, she admits that she does in fact smoke marijuana as does Paul, who comes in mid-interview, looking upset. The Shipleys resent the intrusion of Porter and the police, but as there is nothing to arrest them for, Friday and Gannon leave a little frustrated. Friday and Gannon approach policewoman Dorothy Miller  who specialises in cases of child abuse. Though Miller is sympathetic, she is loaded down with some very serious cases (including a child who was beaten with a garden shovel) and since there is no evidence the Shipleys are abusing Robin, there is nothing she or the others can do. Time passes and Friday and Gannon get a break. One Fred Ludden  is arrested for possession and the two detectives get him to admit he got the marijuana for free from the Shipleys. In short order, the police raid the Shipley home, where a pot party is still in progress. The Shipleys, both high, seem more annoyed than anything else at first, even when Gannon retrieves a bag of reefer, about 1 ounce. But when Gannon notices Robin is missing from her playpen, Paul Shipley can't remember where she is, Jean tries to remember, but is having trouble - then runs fearfully to the bathroom. When she gets there she and the detectives see the bathtub is overflowing, Robin still in there, drowned. Jean and Paul, both heartbroken, break down crying. Gannon has to leave the room to throw up, leaving Friday, still holding the bag of grass, to walk towards the camera, his face out of shot. As the familiar Dragnet theme plays, Friday's hand tightens around the bag in rage. In the end, Paul Shipley is found guilty on a charge of involuntary manslaughter and is placed on probation. Jean Shipley, apparently driven mad by her grief, is not charged but sent to a mental institution.



DRAGNET : THE BIG HIGH
JACK WEB   (1967)
NBC TELEVISION
25 MIN
USA

Adam 12 : A Sound Like Thunder (1969)

Adam-12 is a television police drama, which followed two police officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, Pete Malloy and Jim Reed, as they patrol the streets of Los Angeles in their patrol unit, 1-Adam-12. Created by Jack Webb who is known for creating Dragnet, the series captured a typical day in the life of a police officer as realistically as possible. The show ran from 1968 through 1975, and helped introduce police procedures and jargon to the general public.

A Sound Like Thunder:
Malloy and Reed double date on their day off to a ghost town only to be confronted by a motor cycle gang. It takes their quick police instincts to save the day as Mrs Reed gets too close to delivering the baby.


ADAM 12 : A SOUND LIKE THUNDER
JOSEPH PEVNEY  (1969)
NBC TELEVISION
25 MIN
USA

Voyage to the Bottom of Sea : The Invaders (1965)

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is a 1960s American science fiction television series based on the 1961 film of the same name. Both were created by Irwin Allen, which enabled the movie's sets, costumes, props, special effects models, and sometimes footage, to be used in the production of the television series. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was the first of Irwin Allen's four science fiction television series as well as the longest running. The show's main theme was underwater adventure. Voyage was broadcast on ABC from September 14, 1964 to March 31, 1968, and was the decade's longest-running American science fiction television series with continuing characters. The 110 episodes produced included 32 shot in black and white (1964–65), and 78 filmed in color (1965–68). The first two seasons took place in the then future of the 1970s. The final two seasons took place in the 1980s. The show starred Richard Basehart and David Hedison. The first season began with Admiral Nelson and the crew of the Seaview fighting against a foreign government in order to prevent a world-threatening earthquake, continuing with a foreign government destroying American submarines with new technologies in The Fear Makers and The Enemies. The season also had several ocean peril stories in which the Seaview crew spent the episode dealing with the normal perils of the sea. Two examples are "Submarine Sunk Here" and "The Ghost of Moby Dick". The season introduced the diving bell and a mini-submarine, as well as the first alien story and the first sea monsters. The season ended with the Seaview crew fighting a foreign government to save a defense weapon. In the first season, the gritty, atmospheric, and intense series featured story lines devoted to Cold War themes, as well as excursions into near-future speculative fiction. Many episodes involved espionage and sci-fi elements. While aliens and sea monsters, not to mention dinosaurs, did become the subject of episodes, the primary villains were hostile foreign governments. While fantastic, there was a semblance of reality in the scripts.

The Invaders: season 1 episode # 20  Airdate: January 25, 1965
A severe undersea earthquake exposes an apparently ancient, yet advanced city, an area of which is littered with metallic canisters. Nelson and company bring one of the capsules aboard and discover life within. They manage to cut the thing open and retrieve a strange looking man, a man who claims to be from a civilization twenty million years old, the product of a previous evolutionary cycle. He is most concerned that Nelson also rescue the other canisters, each of which the alien Zar claims, contains one of his people. When questioned, the alien says, among other things that his people do not sleep -- sleep is for animals. Nelson and Crane, suspicious of circumstances and of Zar's odd demeanor, stalls for time to learn more about the creature.  Robert Duvall as Zar. Zar, meanwhile, secretly tinkers with Seaview's equipment,while more publicly, he sits before the sub's microfilm library, absorbing information about us humans at an alarming rate. It eventually turns out that Zar and his people are carriers of diseases which would destroy humanity if loosed on the world; Nelson and Crane must destroy Zar in a blast of fire--Nelson figures it's the only way to kill the cantankerous creature without unleashing his diseases on the world. Realizing that Zar's people have had their day, the Admiral covers the remaining canisters with tons of rock spilled down by several well-placed torpedoes.


I noticed Robert Duvall has his name misspelled in the credits


VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA : THE INVADERS
SOBEY MARTIN (1964)
ABC TELEVISION
55 MIN
USA

Satan's School for Girls (1973)

Satan's School for Girls is a 1973 made-for-tv horror film directed by David Lowell Rich, and produced by Aaron Spelling. The film has been named as one of the most memorable TV movies of the 1970s

The film opens with a mysterious person chasing a student, Martha Sayers (Terry Lumley). The same day, the police and her sister Elizabeth (Pamela Franklin) find her hanged in her room. The police overrule her death as an unmotivated suicide, but Elizabeth refuses to believe this and goes into further investigation. She is planning on visiting the exclusive academy which Martha attended, the Salem Academy for women, despite warnings of Martha's roommate Lucy Dembrow (Gwynne Gilford). Under the assumed name of Elizabeth Morgan, she enrolls at the college, where she is welcomed by her classmates Roberta Lockhart (Kate Jackson), Debbie Jones (Jamie Smith Jackson) and Jody Keller (Cheryl Ladd).


Elizabeth quickly notices the strange occurrences in school. After one of the unusual classes, Debbie has an outburst in the middle of school. Meanwhile, the feared headmistress, Mrs. Jessica Williams (Jo Van Fleet), is worried about 'the new girl', Elizabeth. When word comes out that Lucy has committed suicide, Elizabeth resumes her investigation. She becomes intrigued with a painting from Debbie of Martha in a dungeon-like room. Debbie is terrified of the painting and claims she made up the background, but Elizabeth finds an identical setting in the cellar of the campus. There, she runs away when she spots a person with a sharp weapon, who turns out to be Professor Delacroix (Lloyd Bochner). The next night, Elizabeth returns to the cellar with Roberta, who is now suspicious as well. They locate a hidden room in which they find the dead body of Debbie, who earlier that evening tried to leave the campus. Elizabeth suspects that Delacroix is responsible, considering his odd behavior and an experiment in class in which he drives mice to their deaths. Elizabeth thinks Delacroix is doing the same with the students and breaks into his office, only to find him in a deranged state, with a gun in his hand. He fears something supernatural is after him and jumps through the window. After running around, he ends up helpless in a swamp, where he is beaten with sticks by some of the students, including Jody. Meanwhile, the otherwise popular Dr. Joseph Clampett (Roy Thinnes) reveals himself as the person responsible for all the murders to the headmistress, and he orders her to evacuate the school, leaving behind Elizabeth and Roberta. When she hears some cars driving away, Elizabeth runs outside, only to find the body of a brutally murdered Delacroix. She and Roberta turn to

 Williams for help, but she has gone insane as well, fearing for a woman named Abigail. When they are unsuccessful in calling the police, Elizabeth and Roberta go to the cellar to find a gun. There, they find the satanic cult of Clampett. Among his followers believing that he is Satan are Jody, and Roberta reveals herself as his loyal servant. Elizabeth is able to escape when Clampett sets the school on fire, and she is able to take Williams with her. The girls, however, stay behind to sacrifice themselves, as does Clampett, who, actually being supernatural, is later seen outside, then disappearing.



SATAN'S SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
DAVID LOWELL RICH  (1973)
ABC TELEVISION
83 MIN
USA

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1975)

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble is a 1976 made-for-TV movie inspired by the lives of David Vetter and Ted DeVita, who lacked effective immune systems. It stars John Travolta, Glynnis O'Connor, Diana Hyland, and Robert Reed. It was written by Douglas Day Stewart, produced by Aaron Spelling, and directed by Randal Kleiser, who would work with Travolta again in Grease shortly after. The original music score was composed by Mark Snow. William Howard Taft High School in Woodland Hills was used for filming. The movie first aired on November 1, 1976, on the ABC television network. The film entered the public domain and is available from the Internet Archive. The film centers on the life of Tod Lubitch, who was born with an improperly functioning immune system. This means that contact with unfiltered air may kill him, so he must live out his life in incubator-like conditions. He lives with his parents, since they decided to move him from Texas Children's Hospital where he was being kept as a boy. He is constricted to staying in his room all his life, where he eats, learns, reads, and exercises, while being protected from the outside world by various coverings.


As Tod grows up, he wishes to see more of the outside world and meet regular people his age. He is enrolled at the local school after being equipped with suitable protective clothing, similar in style to a space suit. He falls in love with his next door neighbor, Gina Briggs, and he must decide between following his heart and facing near-certain death, or remaining in his protective bubble forever. In the end, after having a discussion with his doctor who tells him he has built up some immunities which may possibly be enough to survive the real world, he steps outside his house, unprotected, and Gina and he ride off on her horse.

THE BOY IN THE PLASTIC BUBBLE

RANAL KLEISER  (1975)

ABC TELEVISION

83 MIN

USA

No Place to Hide - Unaired Lost in Space Pilot (1965)

Lost in Space is a science fiction TV series created and produced by Irwin Allen, filmed by 20th Century Fox Television, and broadcast on CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with 82 episodes airing between September 15, 1965, and March 6, 1968. Their first TV season was filmed in black and white, but the rest of them were filmed in color. In 1998, a Lost in Space movie, based on the TV series, was released. Though the TV series concept centered on the Robinson family, many storylines focused primarily on Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), originally an utterly evil would-be killer who became a sympathetic anti-hero by the end of the first season, providing comic relief to the TV show (and causing most of the episodic conflict). The first appearance of the Robinson family was in a comic book published by Gold Key " The Space Family Robinson" December 1962[1] The TV series is an adaptation of the novel The Swiss Family Robinson. The astronaut family of Dr. John Robinson, accompanied by an air force pilot and also a robot, set out from an overpopulated Earth in the spaceship Jupiter 2 to visit a planet circling the star Alpha Centauri with hopes of colonizing it. Their mission in 1997 (the official launch date of the Jupiter 2 was October 16, 1997) is immediately sabotaged by Dr. Zachary Smith, who slips aboard their spaceship and reprograms the robot to destroy the ship and crew. Smith is trapped aboard, saving himself by prematurely reviving the crew from suspended animation. They save the ship, but consequent damage leaves them lost in space. Eventually they crash on an alien world, later identified as Priplanis, where they must survive a host of adventures. Smith (whom Allen originally intended to kill off) remains through the series as a source of comedic cowardice and villainy, exploiting the forgiving (or forgetful) nature of the Robinsons. At the start of the second season, the repaired Jupiter 2 launches again, but after two episodes the Robinsons crash on another planet and spend the season there. This replicated the feel of the first season, although by this time the focus of the series was more on humor than straight action/adventure. In the third season, the Robinson Family wasn't restricted to one world. The now mobile Jupiter-2 would travel to other worlds in an attempt to return to Earth or to settle on Alpha Centauri. The Space Pod was added as a means of transportation between the ship and planets. This season had a dramatically different opening credits sequence. Following the format of Allen's first TV series, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, fantasy-oriented adventure stories were emphasized. The show delivered a visual assault of special effects, explosions, monstrous aliens, spaceships, and exotic sets and costumes drenched in the bright, primary colors that were typical of early color television.

It is October 16, 1997 and the United States is proceeding towards the launch of one of history's great adventures: man's colonization of deep space. The Jupiter 2 (called Gemini 12 in the pilot episode), a futuristic saucer-shaped spaceship, stands on its launch pad undergoing final preparations. Its mission is to take a single family on a five-and-a-half-year journey (stated as 98 years in the pilot episode) to a planet of the nearby star Alpha Centauri (the pilot episode refers to the planet itself as Alpha Centauri), which space probes reveal possesses ideal conditions for human life. The Robinson family was selected from among two million volunteers for this mission. The family includes Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams), his wife, Maureen (June Lockhart), their children, Judy (Marta Kristen), Penny (Angela Cartwright), and Will (Billy Mumy). They will be accompanied by their pilot, US Space Corp Major Donald West (Mark Goddard), who is trained to fly the ship in the unlikely event that its sophisticated automatic guidance system malfunctions. Other nations are racing the United States in the effort to colonize space, and they would stop at nothing, even sabotage, to stop the US effort. Dr. Zachary Smith (Jonathan Harris), a medical doctor and environmental control expert, is actually a foreign secret agent. He reprograms the Jupiter 2's B-9 environmental control robot (voiced by Dick Tufeld) to destroy critical systems on the spaceship eight hours after launch. Smith is trapped aboard at launch and his extra weight throws the Jupiter 2 off course, causing it to encounter a meteor storm. The robot's rampage causes the ship to become lost. The Robinsons are often placed in danger by Smith, whose self-centered actions and laziness endanger the family. In the second and third seasons, Smith's role assumes a less evil overtone – although he continues to display many character defects. In "The Time Merchant", Smith travels back in time to the day of the Jupiter 2 launch, with hope of changing his fate. He learns that without his weight altering the ship's course, it would be destroyed by an uncharted asteroid. In an act of redemption, Smith elects to re-board the ship, thus saving the Robinsons' lives.

No Place to Hide:
The un-aired Lost in Space pilot "No Place to Hide" kicked around underground video collectors' circles for close to 20 years, but until its release, first through Columbia House on tape in the late '90s and later as part of the FoxVideo DVD set Lost in Space: Season 1, it wasn't available to ordinary viewers. The first eight and a half minutes of the show are substantially the same as events in the first episode of the series, "The Reluctant Stowaway," but with two key differences: There is no Dr. Zachary Smith (and, hence, no "reluctant stowaway" -- so no saboteur), and there is no robot. There are also differences in the Robinson family's mission. Their ship, called the Gemini 12 rather than the Jupiter 2, will be traveling for 98 years, with the Robinson party in suspended animation, to Alpha Centauri. (Someone didn't do the math, as they're to be traveling for 98 years at virtually the speed of light, which would enough time to make several round trips to a star only 4.4 light-years away.) The plot changes substantially from what was used in the series at just under nine minutes into the story, as the ship encounters a circular swarm of meteors that leaves it critically damaged. The spaceship is next seen going into a low orbit around a planet and entering the atmosphere on automatic controls (with the family still in stasis) for a crash-landing. The plot then jumps ahead six months, to a recollection of events in Professor John Robinson's journal, read over a montage of space castaway life by Guy Williams. The Robinsons are seen living a spartan, but survivable, existence, and we see events that were ultimately used in episodes four and five of the series .


The castaways determine that the planet's orbit will result in a potentially lethal winter, and then discover a race of one-eyed giants, standing 50-feet tall and living in the mountains near where the ship crashed. Professor Robinson and Don West (Mark Goddard) are trapped in a cave by one of the creatures (Lamar Lundy), but are rescued when Will Robinson (Billy Mumy) arrives with a laser pistol. The travelers abandon their spaceship in the face of the coming deep freeze, and along their journey discover an ancient ruin with the mummified remains of something non-human before crossing the inland sea to safety. The latter segment contains a whirlpool scene -- the work of L.B. Abbott and Howard Lydecker -- that is still chilling. The program ends with the Robinsons setting up a new camp, not realizing that they are being observed and evaluated by a pair of aliens.

With the exception of the ending, all of this action will be familiar to longtime fans of the series from its usage in episodes one, four, and five, although some shots and scenes here run longer than they were in the finished program. Perhaps the best of these is the extended version of John Robinson's rocket-pack ride over the alien landscape in search of his missing daughter Penny, a scene set to Bernard Herrmann's hauntingly beautiful, yet moody, seascape music from Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. As John Williams had not yet been engaged to write the score for the episode (or a title theme), all of the music here is tracked in from Herrmann's scores from various 20th Century Fox feature films, including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Journey to the Center of the Earth, and Beneath the 12-Mile Reef. Although less overtly suspenseful than what Williams would write, Herrmann's music gives all of this material a strangely beautiful, poetic quality -- perhaps not as suspenseful as the network wanted, but quite lovely in its way.
 ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi



This is the unaired pilot to the lost in space Series, No Dr Smith and No robot.




NO PLACE TO HIDE - UNAIRED LOST IN SPACE PILOT
IRWIN ALLEN  (1965)
20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVSION
55 MIN
USA

The Addams Family : The Addams Family Goes to School (1964)

The Addams Family was an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964 to April 8, 1966. It is often compared to its working-class rival, The Munsters, which ran for the same two seasons and achieved somewhat higher Nielsen ratings. The Addams Family ranked 23rd in its first season, with a 23.9 rating. The show is the first adaptation of the characters to feature The Addams Family Theme. It was originally produced by Filmways, Inc. at General Service Studios in Hollywood, California. Successor company MGM Television (via The Program Exchange for broadcast syndication, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment for home video/DVD) owns the rights to the show. At one point, distribution rights were licensed to Worldvision Enterprises. The Addamses are a close-knit extended family with decidedly macabre interests. They are humans with supernatural abilities. No explanation for their powers is explicitly given in the series.

The very wealthy, endlessly enthusiastic Gomez Addams is madly in love with his refined wife Morticia. Along with their two children, Wednesday and Pugsley, Uncle Fester and Grandmama, they reside in an ornate, gloomy, Second Empire style mansion, attended by their servants, Lurch, the towering butler, and Thing, a hand that usually appears out of a small wooden box. Occasionally, episodes would feature relatives or other members of their weird subculture, such as Cousin Itt or Morticia's older sister, Ophelia. Much of the humor derives from their culture clash with the rest of the world. They invariably treat normal visitors with great warmth and courtesy, even though their guests often have evil intentions. They are puzzled by the horrified reactions to their (to them) good natured and normal behavior since they are under the impression that their tastes are shared by most of society. Accordingly they view "conventional" tastes with generally tolerant suspicion. For example, Fester once cites a neighboring family's meticulously maintained petunia patches as evidence that they are "nothing but riff-raff." Ironically, many of the things that the Addams family was in favor of that seemed laughable in the mid-1960s have become mainsteam. Homeschooling, protection of swamps (now Federally protected as wetlands), banning of toy guns, and banning of classic fairy tales in schools were all plotlines in the show that were comic fodder at the time. A recurring theme in the epilogue of many episodes was the Addamses getting an update on the most recent visitor to their home, either via something in the newspaper or a phone call. Invariably, as a result of their visit to the Addamses, the visitor would be institutionalized, change professions, move out of the country, or have some other negative life-changing event. The Addamses would always misinterpret the update and see it as good news for that most recent visitor. The tone was set by series producer Nat Perrin, close friend of Groucho Marx and writer of several Marx Brothers films. Perrin created story ideas, directed one episode, and rewrote every script. Much of the dialog is his (albeit uncredited). As a result, Gomez, with his sardonic remarks, backwards logic, and ever-present cigar (pulled from his breast pocket already lit), has been frequently compared to Groucho Marx. In addition, the series often employed the same type of zany satire and screwball humor seen in the Marx Brothers films. It lampooned politics ("Gomez, The Politician" and "Gomez, The People's Choice"), the legal system ("The Addams Family in Court"), Beatlemania ("Lurch, The Teenage Idol"), and Hollywood ("My Fair Cousin Itt").

Episode 1 The Adams Family Goes to School:
Sam Hilliard, a truant officer, shows up at the Addams family home, due to the fact that Pugsley and Wednesday are not attending school. Soon he discovers he's dealing with no typical everyday family. Later, Gomez and Morticia agree to enroll Wednesday and Pugsley in school but make a shocking discovery, fairy tale violence.



THE ADDAMS FAMILY : THE ADDAMS FAMILY GOES TO SCHOOL
ARTHUR HILLER  (1964)
ABC TELEVISION
25 MIN
USA

City Beneath the Sea (1971)

City Beneath The Sea is a 1971 science fiction telemovie and pilot for a proposed series by Irwin Allen. It started as a conceptual 10 minute demo reel as a means to sell the plot and concept to television studios. The concept wasn't bought initially and a few years later Allen produced a two hour telemovie for NBC. Though the two hour movie was again created as a pilot for a series, it failed to garner television episode status but has remained a cult favorite amongst scifi and Irwin Allen fans. In the UK it was shown theatrically in 1972. After years of not having a home video release, it was released on Warner Bros. Archive Collection of DVDs.


The Original Concept
Allen filmed the original concept for City Beneath The Sea as a daring scifi vehicle set in the year 2068 (June 12, 2068 to be exact). The proposed cast consisted of Glenn Corbett, Lloyd Bochner, Lawrence Montaigne, Francine York, Cecile Ozorio and a young but experienced James Brolin. The plot was one of intrigue into the threat of the destruction of a undersea drilling project that would not only destroy the project but possibly the undersea city of Triton. Triton is a thriving underwater city run by General Kevin Matthews (Corbett) with his associates Lia Holmes (York), scientific advisor Dr. Raymond Aguila (Montaigne) who is also a Aquanoid (a amphibian/human hybrid) that can breathe underwater, and his head of security Choo Choo Kino (Ozorio). Their lead engineer Temple (Bochner) is scheming to put an end to an underwater drilling project that is spearheaded by the US government and run by Matthews and his team in Triton. Though an abbreviated story, its finale involves Matthews confronting Temple on the project's surface platform as it is going down in flames. Why this concept failed to make an impression to television producers of the time may seem obvious to us now but back then it seemed to have the right mixture of elements that could at least be a "season" commitment. Still it remained unproduced until 1971 when it debuted as a movie of the week on NBC with a bigger budget, greater and larger storyline and bigger and more noteworthy cast. This production film remained unseen by the public until the release of the DVD The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen in 1995 where it was included as a special feature.


1971 Telemovie
The concept was later revisited by Allen and seasoned TV screenwriter John Meredyth Lucas in the form of a 2 hour movie of the week style outing. The story would combine a natural disaster story with high stakes crime drama and futuristic adventure, all of which Allen was apt at producing and directing. In addition, many props and models from Allen's previous scifi series made appearances too, which often amuses those who see the movie for the first time. The entire cast was replaced as well. Actor Stuart Whitman would play the lead as the city's administrator Admiral Michael Matthews with Rosemary Forsyth, Robert Colbert, Burr DeBenning and Robert Wagner as supporting cast. Lastly musician Richard LaSalle lent his style of music to the film, which of course contained many nods to past Allen efforts. The movie became a cult favorite amongst scifi and Irwin Allen fans but again failed to show the way for a series run.

Storyline
June 12, 2053! A futuristic oil rig explodes somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Cut to New York City the same day. Admiral Michael Matthews is busy in his office setting up travel for various engineering projects in different parts of the world. He then receives a phone call from the President of the United States (Basehart). After much debate he is forced back into his old rank as Admiral and forced back into his old job as administrator of Pacifica the underwater city, his escort Commander Woody Patterson (Colbert) arrives instantaneously and as Matthews tries to be pleasant, Patterson becomes guarded and brusk. They take off into parts unknown in a flying submarine. The inflight banter has the Admiral unsure of his orders but not happy to be returning to his old job. He assures the Commander, that he was given no choice in the matter and that he is sorry the Commander will now be kicked down to Deputy Commander. The submarine makes a high pitched whine as it begins it's dive phase into the ocean. They submerge and make their approach to Pacifca. Matthews comments on how the view of Pacifica still takes the breath away, Patterson replies "I tried not to change anything". Discussion then moves to Matthew's regrets about returning and the past history (it is implied that a man named Bill Holmes may have died because of something Matthews did or ordered done). They continue onto the cities docking facilities while Patterson rattles of stats on water desalinization and protein processing shipping of which Matthews says that he is doing an excellent job and that whatever his orders are for his recall, it couldn't have anything to do with the Commanders performance. Lastly before they dock, Patterson points out that a docking sub is transferring gold from Fort Knox to Pacifica. The Admiral balks saying that job was started before he left Pacifica, at which Patterson informs him that was just six months ago and done according to his schedule. With the vaults now 2/3 full they have stepped up receiving to 3 subs a day and that the sum total of the wealth of the nation will be secured at Pacifica within 17 days. As they make final approach for docking Patterson radioes in to prepare to receive Admiral Matthews to which Matthews quips "No ceremony". Patterson's reply is "We haven't prepared any."

CITY BENEATH THE SEA
IRWIN ALLEN (1971)
20TH CENTURY FOX TELEVISION
90 MIN
USA

Men into Space : Moon Probe (1959)

Men Into Space was a half-hour American sci-fi television series broadcast from September 30, 1959 to September 7, 1960 by CBS which depicted future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The black-and-white filmed show starred William Lundigan as Col. Edward McCauley.

The series was not set in a specific era, but clues throughout the scripts indicated that it took place in the mid 1970s to mid 1980s, with the first moon landing somewhere around 1975. Props were occasionally futuristic (such as a forerunner of today's real-life LCD TVs) but the show's earthly clothing and environs, including automobiles, telephones and other machines, were decidedly 1950s. Men Into Space was somewhat unusual for a TV action series in that it had numerous recurring characters, but only one --- the protagonist, Col. Edward McCauley (William Lundigan) --- who was in each of the 38 episodes in the series. Tyler McVey appeared in seven episodes as Major General Norgath. Ron Foster appeared five times as Lieutenant Neil Templeton.

McCauley was a sort of "everyman" character who was viewed in the show as the most experienced and illustrious astronaut. As depicted in the scripts, the low-key but decisive McCauley was ubiquitous, assigned to every important space mission over at least a decade, including the earliest manned flights, the first flight to the moon, many additional moon landings and moon base construction missions, construction of a space station, and two flights to Mars (neither succeeded, and folklore has it that plans for a never-aired second season would have focused on further missions to Mars and beyond). In many episodes, the astronauts were faced with accidents or technical problems that required innovation. The program was not idealistic; missions sometimes failed and astronauts sometimes died. For example, a scientist-astronaut stricken with a heart attack while exploring the moon was not expected to survive the G-forces of the return flight, so his comrades stowed the space-suited patient in a steel drum filled with water, to cushion him during launch. A "Space Race" episode involved spacecraft from the USA and USSR starting out almost simultaneously on the first Mars mission, with one of the craft aborting its effort to rescue the other craft and crew after it experienced problems. The series included an episode whose plot essentially paralleled the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission's explosion in space more than a decade later, and another that was an uncanny foretelling of the accident that befell the real Gemini VIII mission in 1966.
Scripts often considered the human factor, and while action was the show's forte, humor and romance were part of the mix. Men Into Space predicted women astronauts and scientists, and married couples in space. The series was advertised as being for its era an extremely accurate preview of manned spaceflight, based on studies of the era and buttressed by technical assistance from the USAF's ballistic missile and space medicine offices. The spacecraft designs, however, veered inconsistently between early 1950s Wernher Von Braun concepts, and later, totally scaled-down proposals. Visual backdrops and conceptual designs of spacecraft, space stations and a moon base depended somewhat on contributions from notable astronautics artist Chesley Bonestell. The series also availed itself of extensive documentary footage of early missile launches. It evoked the earlier Disney space exploration documentaries, which in turn owed their look and feel to a widely read, early 1950s series on the subject in the old Collier's Weekly magazine, where Bonestell's art also held sway.Men Into Space, later syndicated as Space Challenge, used for its plots many technical and human problems anticipated by engineers and planners. For example, the show depicted attempts to refuel spacecraft by tanker in orbit, construction of a space telescope, an experiment to dispose of high level atomic waste by launching it into the sun, the search for life-sustaining frozen water on the moon, exploration and destruction of an asteroid whose orbit threatened Earth, and exo-fossil evidence of extraterrestrial life. Although the series was modestly budgeted, it was cleverly mounted with what, for its era, were good special effects helmed by Louis DeWitt. Even decades later, the series can still be appreciated for its attention to detail and accurate physics.



MEN INTO SPACE
WALTER DONIGER  (1959)
ZIV TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS
25 MIN
USA